Spring for vehicles.



No. 721.107. PATENTED FEB. 17, 1903.

T. G. STEVENS.

' SPRING FOR VEHICLES.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 21, 1902.

10 MODEL. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

WIN/8858. //VV/VTOR. M JWM w fiyfii/sAbl'ornqys.

Tn: nouns PETERSDQ. MOTO-UTNO wasumamm n. c

PATENTED FEB. 17, 1903.

T. G. STEVENS. SPRING FOR VEHICLES.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 21. 1902.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

H0 HODEL.

' WITNESSES.

lNVif/TOR. M Q

orrwys. I

By fits 146E UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS GEORGE STEVENS, or GRAVESEND, ENGLAND.

SPRING FOR VEHICLES.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 721,107, dated February 1'7, 1903. Application filed July 21, 1902. Serial No. 116,408. (No model.)

To ctZZ whont it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS GEORGE STE- VENS, a subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, whose post-office address is Swiss Cottage, Rosherville, Gravesend, in the county of Kent, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in and Connected with Springs for Vehicles; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention for improvements in and connected with springs for vehicles has for its object to provide springs arranged and constructed in a simple and elfective manner suitable for carriages, railway-wagons, and the like vehicles and which by the provision of a simple means may be caused to indicate the weight of their contents; and it consists, essentially, of toggle levers connected together and to a spring or springs in such a manner that each pair of levers may be acted on by a separate spring or springs, or one spring or set of springs may act on several toggles in common and so that all the said toggles are actuated in unison. By this means and by the addition of a pointer attached to a moving part of the toggle system and working over a properly-graduated scale the weight of the load in the vehicle may be read oif.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a sectional elevation, Fig. 2 an inverted plan,

and Fig. 3 an end elevation, of a tipping or dumping trolley fitted with springs and spring connections constructed according to this invention. Fig. 4 shows a vertical section of one end of an ordinary railway-truck.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2, and 3 of the drawings, the body a of the tipping-wagon is mounted in bearings b, surmounting standards c, secured to the horizontal carryingframe 61, itself supported by the main frame e through the toggle-levers f-g f g, pivoted together by the pivot-spindles h t' and to the carrying-frame and main frame by the spindles Z Z m m. The toggle-levers are all of equal length and their pivot-spindles h i are connected together by the connecting-rod n and to a spring 0 by a rod 19, having an ad:

justable head q free to slide in the springbox 9, which is connected to the main frame 6 by the rod extensions 8 and pin t. The spindle t is also connected to the main frame by means of toggle-linkf, radial guide-rods o, and pin t. It will thus be seen that as the load'in the body a is varied the angle between the toggle-levers and the distance between frames (1 e are also correspondingly varied, the closing and opening of the togglelevers causing an increased or diminished force to be communicated to the spring 0. It will be obvious that any movement imparted to one pair of toggle-levers will be equally communicated to the remaining three pairs through ,the frames d e, rod 11., and radial guide-rods u, so that for any given load wherever placed in the body a a corresponding force is communicated to the spring 0, and by the unison of motion in the togglelevers the planes of the frame (1 in different positions are always parallel.

' In order to ascertain the load in the vehicle, it is only necessary to affix to some convenient part of the moving mechanism a pointer or other indicator. For this purpose a rod to is secured to the connecting-rod n and has on its extremity pointers m, which with the imposition of varying loads traverse a suitably-graduated scale y, and thereby indicate the weight.

Fig. 4 shows this invention applied to an ordinary truck, the toggle-levers f" g being connected to the frame e and axle-box 2. In this case the radial guide-rods are dispensed with, their place being supplied by the axlebox guides, as will be readily understood.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a wheeled vehicle, the combination with the main frame e, of the horizontal carrying-frame d, the toggledevers f, g, f, g, pivotedtogether by pivot-spindles, and to the carrying-frame and main frame by spindles Z, Z, m, m, said toggle-levers being all of equal length, the body a, mounted on frame d, a connecting-rod connecting the spindles h, t', a spring 0, a rod connecting the spindles h, t', with the spring, a spring-box r in which the rod can slide, a connection between the box and main frame, a connection between the spindlet', and main frame, a pointer carried by a movable part of the mechanism, and a scale over which said pointer can travel.

2. In a wheeled Vehicle, the combination with the main frame 6, of the horizontal carrying-frame d, the toggle-levers f, g, f, g, pivoted together by pivot-spindles h, 2', and to the carrying-frame and main frame by spindles Z, m, Z, m, said toggle-levers being all of equal length, the body ct, mounted in bearings surmcunting standards a, secured to the frame 61, a connecting-rod connecting the spindles h, 11, a spring 0, the rod 19, connecting the spindles h, i, with the spring, said rod 19, having an adjustable head, the box r,

THOMAS GEORGE STEVENS.

Witnesses:

W. G. GLASTER, W. J. SKERTEN. 

